Page 5 - FOP Magazine August 2020

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
JOHN CATANZARA
President
Michael Mette
First Vice President
Daniel D. Gorman
Second Vice President
Fernando Flores
Third Vice President
Greg Bella
Recording Secretary
Jim Jakstavich
Financial Secretary
Dennis McGuire
Treasurer
Kevin Graham
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
Nenad Markovich Frank Quinn III Daniel Sheehan
Trustees
Harold Brown John Capparelli Pablo Claudio Frank J. DiMaria David DiSanti Mark P. Donahue Patrick Duckhorn Tim Fitzpatrick Dan Goetz Ken Hauser Tom Lonergan Brock Merck Steve Olsen Monica Ortiz Dan Quaid Ron Shogren Daniel G. Trevino
Field Representatives
Andrew Cantore Rob Noceda
Pushing it to the limit
The letter to Trump, the appearances on Fox 32 news and calling out the de- cisions of the mayor and the Department are the rally cry about conditions of employment we are not going to accept.
My reaction to everything is anger, frustration, excitement and dedication to changing this narrative once and for all, no matter what. I just can’t express how dedicated we are as a team at the Chicago FOP to stop this false narrative and anti-police sentiment and tip the scales in our favor going forward.
We are pushing back. Enough of the empty promises that keep coming from the City and the Department. The women and men of this Lodge deserve proper representation, so I will keep screaming from the highest mountain top as long
and as loud as I can until the powers that be understand, once and for all, that our members form the only line between total chaos and civilized society.
What happened at the Columbus statue is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the Department, and especially with the mayor. We had 52 officers hurt defending it against an unlawful protest, and she takes down the statue in the middle of the night, à la Richard Daley. That’s a big slap in the face to the 52.
There should be some kind of remembrance moment for what happened there. Nothing like Haymarket Square, but there needs to be something significant in this turnaround effort. Our rally cry is going to continue. We’re going to harp on it over and over again that, a large number of officers were hurt defending something that has become a bigger symbol of the mayor’s dis- respect for the women and men of the Chicago Police Department.
The mob is pushing it and the politicians are allowing it to happen by letting these protests take place without permits. They are letting law and order become shaded with more and more colors of gray. It just doesn’t make any sense to have police officers thinking in the back of their minds that they will be subjected to aggravated battery while trying to hold that line.
From the lodge’s perspective, these types of attacks should not be a condition of employment and will never be. The mayor and the city council have perpetrated the mindset that officers can’t defend themselves. And if this keeps up, the mindset going forward will be that a lot of people will get hurt.
The Department does not hold officer safety at its highest regard where it should be. Back on May 29 and 30, I tried to get the number of officers who were hurt during the protests. I could not get the information.
Not having full knowledge of where your troops are within 24 hours of the incidents, not knowing who got hurt and how severely, not having somebody dedicated to keeping track of those numbers shows you where their priorities are. And they are not with the men and women of the Department. So we are going to continue the rally cry until they make officers their No. 1 priority. Chief of Operation Brian McDermott did provide the numbers of officers hurt at the Columbus statue rally in a timely fashion, so hopefully the Department is getting the message.
But we are getting very little cooperation from the mayor’s office. They have obviously ratch- eted up the rhetoric, even before the text messages she sent call me unhinged for demanding accountability for the safety of our officers. There is a simple solution. Ban all protests that do not have a permit. Let them know that if they protest without a permit, they will be arrested. And permits should only be granted for protests that can be properly manned with CPD super- vision to make sure they don’t get out of hand.
That’s the only way to get this city into a livable situation. Downtown is a ridiculous circus. At 8 a.m. on a Sunday, an elderly person is getting carjacked. People are being shot on a bridge. People are riding motorcycles right through the middle of town, having burnout sessions right in front of the police. And they know there are no consequences. This lawless society is turning into “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”
The only recourse was to ask for federal troops to come in. That’s why I sent the letter to
JOHN CATANZARA
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2020 5